Safe Crackers Captured             July 2011
BY ANNE DYNI
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This was the lead article in the Boulder Camera on December 20, 1916. It was just days before Christmas, and perhaps the culprits needed money for a few presents. Whatever the reason, they planned their caper well.

George Ryan, George Wilson, and an unknown accomplice had caught the Inter-urban train from Denver to Boulder the night before and rode it as far as the railroad wye just outside of town. From there, they walked the remaining seven miles along the Colorado & Southern tracks to Niwot.

Knowing that there were tools stored in the unoccupied section house at Niwot Road, they hadn’t even packed their own burglary tools. They also knew that a railroad handcar stored in the shed behind the section house could provide their escape after robbing the Niwot State Bank on Murray Street. What they hadn’t planned for was the weather.

The first challenge facing the trio was to gain entrance to the building. After sawing a hole in the side door, they were able to unlock it from the inside. Next came the vault door, which was easily blown off with just enough explosives to muffle the sound. Once inside, the robbers found nearly 50 safe deposit boxes, which were quickly broken open and their contents removed.

Years later, some old-timers still remembered the event. As children, they had placed money and keepsakes in their parents’ safe deposit boxes. Young Howard Morton lost $26 that night, while Allen Bolton and his sister Vera both lost $2.50 gold pieces from their grandfather’s box. Unfortunately, postmaster Cordia Clifford had placed about $500 worth of postage stamps in the vault overnight for safe keeping. All were stolen that night.

The biggest obstacle proved to be the bank safe, also kept inside the vault. When the burglars took one look at the quality of the “burglar-proof” safe, however, they decided not to attempt to blow it open.

After a disappointing bank job, it was time to make their getaway. The railroad handcar was poised to carry the three men back to Boulder, but it had begun to snow heavily and the tracks were quickly becoming impassable. The trio made it as far as the 63ed Street rail crossing before abandoning the handcar and heading out on foot for what they thought were the lights of Boulder.

But the lights in the distance were not Boulder, and the men walked an additional 12 miles through waist-deep snow to arrive in Lafayette, totally exhausted. Sheriff Sanford Buster tracked them to a boarding house near the train depot and arrested two of the three burglars the next morning. According to the Boulder Camera article, most of the stolen property was recovered.